Winter Olympics 2018 Highlights

Last night was the closing ceremony for the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang. If you didn’t already know, I love the Olympics! I watch a bunch of different events, but far from all of them. I watch as many as I can as they’re broadcast on NBC and I record the ones that are shown late at night when I’m asleep. Then I just fast forward through to what I want to see when I get home from work.

Anyway the point of this post is just to highlight some of the things I absolutely loved during this Olympics! And while many of the things are of Americans, I do have a few other countries mixed in there.

I love the opening ceremony each Olympics. It’s so exciting and there’s so much anticipation for the games!

It was so fun to watch Red Gerard compete and come back from 10th place to win gold in Snowboarding Slope Style!

 

Chloe Kim was one to watch during these games and it was so exciting to see her win on the halfpipe! After one of her runs I saw her hugging snowboarder Louie Vito in the stands and one time Louie liked one of my Instagram posts so it’s kinda like I’m friends with her. Just kidding!

Early on in the games, Chris Mazdzer won silver in Men’s Luge which was so exciting because it’s the first Olympics medal for the USA in men’s luge!

Shaun White made an epic comeback with huge air on the Snowboard Halfpipe! He won a historic 3rd gold medal in the event.

Jamie Anderson wins gold for the 2nd time in Women’s Snowboarding Slope Style!

Skiing phenom, Mikaela Shiffrin, won gold in Giant Slalom after a few days delay due to weather. The compacted schedule affected her other events and her energy levels, but she still did great winning a gold in GS and silver in Super Combined.

Brita Sigourney won bronze in the Skiing Halfpipe, which I honestly don’t remember seeing last Olympics, but was an event because the men’s skiing halfpipe had a repeat winner.

Like I said, repeat winner! David Wise was able to defend his gold title even after his first two runs ended with mishaps like his ski falling off!

Kyle Mack was so happy to win silver in the first ever Snowboard Big Air competition at the Winter Olympics!

 

John-Henry Kreuger won silver in an exciting Short Track Race which saw 2 of the competitors wiping out towards the end!

In one of the most exciting finishes, Jessie Diggins & Kikkan Randall won gold in the Crosscountry Team Relay and are the first ever gold medal in the event for the US! The last gold medal in crosscountry skiing for the country was 40 years ago!

After missing the past 2 (I think 2) Olympics due to injuries, Lindsay Vonn ended her Olympic career with a bronze medal in her most famous event – Downhill.

Nick Goepper won silver in Ski Slopestyle and his story was so inspiring. After winning bronze in the last Olympics, he had a rough patch. He became depressed to the point that he even contemplated suicide, but he worked on himself and is better than ever!

Another inspiring story is that of the sole Olympic athlete from Tonga, Pita Taufatofua. He was last in the summer Olympics and immediately after competing there, and not doing that well, he began training for the Winter Olympics despite growing up and living in a tropical country and pretty much never seeing snow before! I love his outlook on life and his story. He was determined to succeed and even trained on the sand with boards on his feet to mimic skiing! He said he believes everyone is an Olympian whether it’s in sports or not because we all have things we want to do and why can’t you try to do them? I love that he didn’t care if he won or not, he just wanted to be there and try his best. His goal for his event was to finish before they turned the lights off and not to ski into a tree! How awesome is that?!

I love the Shib Sibs! Maia and Alex Shibutani are so good and won bronze in the Ice Dance event. They also helped Team USA win bronze in the Team Figure Skating Event.

Canadian Ice Dancing pair Virtue & Moir are perfection on ice. Their Moulin Rouge program is amazing!

The figure skating pair from Germany won gold and it was well deserved. Their performance was breathtaking and so beautiful. This was the girl’s 5th Olympics and she finally won!

Despite the fact that Mirai Nagasu fell in her individual short and free skate programs, she nailed her free skate program for the Team Event and it was amazing to watch. She became the first American woman to land a triple axel at the Olympics!

The Women’s Figure Skating gold went to Zagitova of Russia, but I’m showing a photo of silver medalist, Medvedeva – also from Russia instead because I thought her skating was beyond beautiful and I think she deserved to win gold! She truly embodies a character when she skates and takes you on an emotional journey. Her skating is truly phenomenal. She really puts her soul out on the ice.

Adam Rippon won bronze for the Team Event, but didn’t win anything for his individual event. However, he was one of the stars of the games because of his hilarious personality! He is so funny! Definitely a fan!

Like Adam Rippon, Nathan Chen won for the Team Event, but not in the individual mostly due to a bad Short Program. But his Free Skate was absolutely amazing with an astounding, historic, 6 quads! I hope he makes it to the next Olympics!

It was exciting to watch Hungary win the Short Track Relay, especially because it was the first ever Winter Olympics gold for the country!

After a rivalry that has lasted for at least the past 5 Winter Olympics, the US won gold in Women’s Hockey after a thrilling overtime and shootout! It was their first time winning gold in 20 years.

 

There were so many amazing moments but these were just the highlights of what I saw. Many of these events had me on the verge of tears and pretty much all the ones that involve jumps had me so nervous that they would fall or get injured!

The US also won gold in Curling, but I didn’t watch that as I still don’t understand curling, but that was exciting for them!

Are you an Olympics lover too?